ITHACA -- Not that long ago, Homer High School graduate Fletcher Kuiken was finishing his six-year career doing tactical-aircraft maintenance on U.S. Air Force F-35 fighters.
But there was always the question of what he would do next.
Yes, he likely could do maintenance work for a commercial airline, but no airline needed workers trained on jets that could fly 1,200 mph. He believed he had the stuff to attend college and further himself that way, but he didn’t feel his Air Force salary and benefits would cover private university tuition, even with help from what his father had earned in a U.S. Army career.
Kuiken’s answer, it turns out, was found at his local community college. Tompkins Cortland Community College has a partnership with a Cornell University in Ithaca being overseen by Penn State University and funded by the National Science Foundation. The program is designed to bring U.S. military veterans into the nanotechnology work force.
Kuiken is one of six Central New York students, all veterans, who made his first visit Monday to a “cleanroom” at Cornell University’s nanomanufacturing facility. The students donned the coveralls and face masks they’ll be required to wear when they work in the cleanroom during a 12-week program taught by faculty at the Ivy League university.
The lectures by Penn State professors will be virtual at TC3 in Dryden; the lab work will be in person at Cornell.
The veterans were introduced to a range of experiences being taught, Kuiken said, “and this one just jumped off the page for me.”
“It’s incredible that they’re offering this program,” he added, “and that they’re offering it for free.”
Allison Godwin, a professor of engineering education research and associate director of Cornell’s NanoScale Science and Technology Facility, says her job is about connecting students who are needed in the job market, and can serve in a number of high-skill positions.
For example, Micron Technology plans to create the largest-ever cleanroom space in Clay, just north of Syracuse. Micron plans to invest $125 billion to build four chip-fabrication plants in Clay in Onondaga County and a research and development facility in Idaho.
The first Onondaga plant would come online in 2028 and the second in 2029 will cleanrooms Micron says would take the space of 40 football fields. It plans to hire 20,000 people, seeding about 50,000 jobs as it increases the United States’ overall production of computer-memory chips 40%.
A worker at Micron’s Clay facility, Godwin says, could need the skills to assemble an 80-layer computer chip. But not every worker needs to be a scientist or an engineer.
“Other workers could need the skills to install high-pressure gas lines to power the plant,” she said. “Others would be needed to construct buildings to house workers, and the roads to enable them to get to their jobs.”
Students in the program at Cornell likely will come from a background that had a strong start in STEAM – Science, Technology. Engineering, Arts and Math, she said. To help such students, TC3 has people working on that goal.
Carrie Coates Whitmore, director of community education and workforce development, said TC3 is encouraging students who have an interest in biology, chemistry, math and physics and other STEAM subjects to pursue those interests.
TC3 will work with the Cornell Nanoscale Facility to determine whether the program can continue after spring 2025, TC3 officials have said. Depending on the program’s success, TC3 might be eligible for another two semesters.
TC3 mathematics Professor Sophia Georgiakaki points out that humans “are born to be scientists. She points out children have different learning styles, and “with nanotech, you have to do it to learn it.”
